Today's good deed.

This morning was insane at my house. We've got a little one with croup, which means we were up the better part of the night holding our little love upright so she could get some sleep without coughing. Enough on that still tender subject.

With the chaos of our normal morning routine came another unexpected twist this morning though - a ring of the doorbell (ok, two or three rings - do people not realize triple-ringing is RUDE?!?!?) with a neighbor asking if an adorable boxer on the front stoop belonged to us. Nope - one, two boxers still in bed like the lazy bums they are, everyone was present & accounted for at our house. Not that we actually checked - obviously we do know what our dogs look like, even with zero sleep. Another ring about 30 minutes later asked the same question. Nope, still not ours.

But crazy dog-loving people that we are, we couldn't take the thought of this dog wandering in the cold all day - if one of our beloved furbabies was out in the cold, I would hope some kind soul would take pity on them. The dog had no collar, so we couldn't find an owner, but we got him all cozied up in a kennel, and he walked right in and laid down like he owned the place. Obviously, he belonged in a super-spoiled house like the one he was in.

Long story somewhat shorter, I finally got in touch with someone at the animal shelter here around noon and found out that someone was indeed searching for a male boxer. The guy called, and I went home to let this little guy out of the kennel and send him back to his family. Both the owner and dog were overjoyed, and I was too.

The moral of the story? Making someone else's day can definitely make your own.

Gallery Wall Reveal!

After months of choosing just the right pictures, some additional art, and finally making the time to hang everything in that just so arrangment (not that I'm OCD or anything - please don't ask my hubby his opinion on the subject), the gallery wall is done! I am so thrilled with how it came out. I absolutely love displaying photos of our family, and this was the perfect way to showcase some awesome photos of our girl. The majority of these were taken by the totally fabulous Paul Wharton, who we love dearly, and the awesome picture in the middle of the birthday girl was taken by Kristen Sweeting - who we came to love by getting her to do some amazing shots of our girl on on the big party day. There are also a couple of great Etsy finds in here. Although I tried to include links for your shopping pleasure, Blogger is stupid and I can't get my links to work, so just go to Etsy and shop at the stores listed below.

If you are someone I know in real life, please come over and see my wall! The colors look awesome in person. And I may be slightly obsessed with the wall. Either way, take a look and enjoy!

If you are a Jack Johnson fan, you recognize these lyrics. If not, google it. Love Jack! This was purchased via Owl's Love Nest on Etsy.
These two were awesome Etsy finds as well. The first is customized with a house here in MJ via Consider Lilies on Etsy, and the second is a quote from Daughters by John Mayer, purchased via Beckyxo on Etsy. Adorable child photo via Paul Wharton. Adorable child via yours truly (with equal credit to my hubs, of course).

What new projects are sprucing up your house this winter?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Certainly not outside, with temps in the 60's and up this week, but inside the Klahn house, Christmas is in full swing! We scaled our decorating down this year with only one tree (as opposed to our usual 3) and leaving some of our decorations in their boxes until we are past the toddler stage. The house still looks great though. I love having the lights off and using the light of the Christmas tree downstairs in the evenings all December long! We got a new tree for our living room after Christmas last year, so I was excited/nervous to get it up. We bought a floor display with no box, so it has been in pieces in our garage all year, and I was afraid the pre-lit lights would not work, but everything worked perfectly and the tree is beautiful! Next year (maybe) we will move our old slim tree upstairs to become the baseball tree that goes in our bonus room. I love unwrapping all our ornaments from places we've been, our first Christmas, the family ornaments I get each year, each pet's special ornament, and of course Delaney's first ornament. I guess I am getting sentimental in my old age!

We are also getting into the spirit with Christmas music. My awesome hubby has a tradition of giving me a Black Friday gift each year, usually Christmas CD's. This year's choices were Aretha Franklin Christmas and the new Michael Buble Christmas CD. Both are awesome! Christmas movies are important to us too - Andrew & I always watch Elf before decorating to start out the season, this year Delaney watched a little with us and snoozed through the rest. Between now and Christmas, we'll include our other favorites like Christmas Vacation and The Family Stone. Delaney is even getting into the spirit by choosing The Night Before Christmas and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Christmas as her favorite books right now - in case you don't have a toddler, that means we read each about 8 million times a day (that's per person, per book). She doesn't quite "get" the whole Christmas thing yet, but she loves the tree and lights, and all the decorations! We are working on the whole "gentle touch" thing - its a work in progress (see gated Christmas tree below!).

Here are some pictures of the house all decked out for the holidays!

The beautiful new tree, with aforementioned toddler gate

A little festive bling in Delaney's room!

My Willow Tree nativity is one of my favorite items.

The animal stockings, and pictures of our first married Christmas (just us and Callaway!), Delaney's first Christmas, and Santa pictures from this year and last. She has changed so much in a year!

Our village, my sparkly tree collection, and our stockings. You can't really see the hangers, but they are a daddy, mama, and baby reindeer. They will last until there is another baby reindeer someday!

A day to give thanks.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We have made it a family tradition to host Thanksgiving at our house. We have a small gathering with the three of us, Grannie, Pop, Grandma, & Grandpa. We love spending this time together eating, relaxing, watching football, and of course playing with our sweet girl. This year I even got some crafting done, with the help of my mom-in-law! We all had a great day, and Delaney was loving getting so much attention. She worked the room all day long and spent time with everyone. She is so lucky to have all four grandparents so close by to spend time with her and watch her grow! Here are some highlights from our day.

Some reading time after lunch

Delaney in her adorable Thanksgiving outfit!

Chowing down! Delaney loved all our traditional Thanksgiving foods!

The spread! Delicious turkey, stuffing & gravy made by my hubby, homemade rolls and mashed potatoes made by Grandpa, broccoli casserole made by Grannie, and of course the cranberry sauce, my favorite part!!

Happy girls on Thanksgiving Day

I hope your Thanksgiving was a wonderful day, as ours was!

Happy Turkey Day!

We are counting our blessings around here today and hope you are too. Wishing you and your family a blessed, happy Thanksgiving!

Delaney's First Haircut!

Today our wonderful friend Kristen at AquaBella salon here in MJ cut Delaney's hair for the first time. Kristen cuts all the family hair - mine, Andrew, mom & dad's, so of course she is going to be Delaney's stylist as well. :)

Delaney was a total ham the whole time, laughing and cutting up (no pun intended) with Kristen, Mommy & Daddy the whole time. She did great and loved looking at herself in the mirror. Her hair wasn't too long, but it is so fine we decided to trim it up in order to get it growing in a little thicker.

What kind of mommy paparazzi would I be if I did not fully document this in photographs? Here is the finished product - I think Delaney loves the salon! Thanks Kristen, we love you!!

It's the holiday season...

This weekend, we decided to start the holiday season off right with a day at Opryland Hotel. After packing up enough food/toys/clothes/essentials to get us through the day, we headed out after breakfast Saturday morning. My parents went with us too, a little tradition we started last year. We had such a wonderful day! The hotel was not crowded at all. Delaney was a sweet angel the whole time, and had so much fun riding around looking at all the decorations. She got her picture with Santa again this year, and got to meet Mrs. Claus too! She gave a big smile on Santa's lap, and he said he was impressed with how happy she was to see him at her age. Maybe that means Delaney will get an extra-full stocking this year! :)
Here are some pictures from our first holiday outing. I can't share the best ones, as they will soon be coming to a Christmas card near you!! We are now ready to celebrate Thanksgiving and get our Christmas decorations out next weekend! Happy Holidays!!

Mommy & Daddy snuck in a quick picture :)

Delaney and Mrs. Claus!

Goofing around at snack time!

My beautiful, happy girl

Enjoying the ride!

Save the drama for your mama.

Delaney sure does. She is a sweet, affectionate, loving girl, but she definitely has her toddler moments (although, to be fair, its too soon to tell if these will fade with age or she is going to be a drama queen like her mother).
Just as the BabyCenter know-it-all's will tell you, Delaney throws more fits for mommy than daddy. They are very short-lived, and I patted myself on the back this week when reading BabyCenter's email and finding that we already are handling tantrums the "appropriate way." End shameless self-appreciation of basic parenting skills here. Most of the outbursts stem from her not being able to communicate to us quickly enough (for her taste, anyway). I can understand why this is annoying. I mean, how would you feel if you needed someone to come to your aid during a major playtime crisis, and everyone was just standing around talking about how cute your pigtails are? Immensely cute, by the way.
She is also repeating any and everything she hears, the most recent of which is the word "now." What used to be a simple command (like "Up") has become "Up Now." Still said in a sweet little voice with a sweet little smile, but I haven't quite figured out how to nip that in the bud yet. I think she is so proud of herself for using a new word that she doesn't realize she's being a bit on the rude side. It is hard to distinguish while she's otherwise so adorable.
But, all in all, I don't mind bearing the brunt of the attitude. After all, I usually get a smothering of hugs and smoochies afterwards, and that's just fine by me.

i heart shopping.

Yep, I'm a shop-a-holic. Today, though, I branched out and did something I haven't done in a while - shopped for myself. I shop a lot - online and offline. You just never know when you'll see something fun. I especially love this time of year, as I love finding gifts for those I love.
Maybe its all the blogs I've been reading lately about moms (or women in general) not taking care of themselves, or maybe its that my working out/eating right is starting to pay off, but I actually found a couple of things for myself that I liked tonight. And were steals, obviously. I said I love to shop - I never said I love to pay full price.
My best buy of the night was my $.25 sunglasses from Rue21. I went in to shop for accessories and felt about 100 years old when I got called ma'am and they asked if I wanted to buy cologne for my son. WHAT?!? I know motherhood has aged me, but come on. I may or may not have exclaimed to the darling teenage girl behind the counter that I! AM! NOT! OLD! ENOUGH! to have a son that wears cologne.
Despite that small outburst, I had some wonderful girl time with one of my best girlfriends, and then a little time to myself while I stopped in a few more stores. It was a much needed breather after a busy week, and helped to recharge my batteries a little.
And while I bought nothing for Delaney, I did manage to pick up a little something for the hubs. No, I really don't understand how that happened either.
But I will have plenty of time to think about it while he hunts down & kills all the bad guys on MW3.

Bedroom Mini-Makeover.

We've been in our house a little more than three years now, and I'm starting to scratch the redecorating itch. Although there are some gorgeous new things I'd love to do (thanks mostly to Pinterest), the ones that involve paint, new furniture, and total room rearranging will just have to wait.
I did decide to get a little creative though, and by moving a few things around and pulling in some items from different rooms, we've got some new, fresh decor for the walls.
Would you like a sneak peek? If not, now would be the time to click that little x in the corner of your screen. Same picture, new wall. A canvas that Andrew & I bought on our honeymoon.
My new creation for the wall. Cardboard K from JoAnn's. Husby painted for me and I used a copper leafing pen to write the lyrics from one of our favorite songs, "You and Me" by DMB.

The gallery style wall. K from above, maternity picture by my fab sis-in-law, Delaney's newborn and 3 month pictures by Paul Wharton, clock with verses from Proverbs from Aunt Debbie & Aunt Vicki, Always Kiss Me Goodnight frame from Kirklands, and an amazing silhouette of Delaney done by hand by the same man who did mine when I was a little girl.

A new favorite space. "Grow old with me" plaque from Hobby Lobby has been on this wall, but our new addition is the "I love you because..." printable found via Pinterest. This is such a fun way to leave little affirmations for each other. It has been a great feeling to come in to the room and notice you have a note about how you are loved! I plan to put one of these in Delaney's room when she is older as well.

Sconces from my Party Lite bridal shower (a million years ago). Just removed the candles and added some other stuff from around the house. Angel given to our family at my Grannie's funeral, flower from Target, milk glass vase an heirloom from my Grannie, and rolled paper flowers DIY'ed by me from here.

Sports Suck.

But not for the reason that a lot of wives hate sports. I always see the little signs at craft fairs that say "This marriage has been interrupted for football/basketball/baseball season." That couldn't be farther from our house. Andrew & I are both bigtime sports fans, one of the first commonalities that we learned about each other early along in our relationship.

Football and baseball are our main sports. Now, I have to admit, that during baseball season, I only follow the Cubbies, only watch some of their games, and could care less about what any of the other teams are doing. Football season is a completely different animal. We root for Vandy football and sometimes catch a home game in person. Sundays belong to Titans football at our house. The day starts with a great tailgate with friends (with awesome food and beverages, of course), followed by the walk into the stadium and up to our seats.

Yesterday, a perfectly good first half was ruined by a completely miserable second half. But let's not talk about that.

Beyond the Titans, we keep up with everyone in the AFC South, because of course we need to know where we stand (Plus, its fun to laugh at the Colts. Tee hee.) This year, add in the fact that Andrew & I are both playing Fantasty Football (not a good weekend for me there, either), and you get one couple that really loves to cheer on the home teams (and random players from other teams that we have on our rosters).

So, although Vandy, the Titans, and the Ugly Naked Guys (my fantasty team - if you aren't a Friends fan, then you don't get it) all let me down this weekend, you can bet we'll be glued to the TV next Sunday at noon, decked out in our gear and cheering for a win on the road.

Playground Fun.

Today Delaney and I met our best buds Tracey & Gavin at the park for some playground fun. The weather was gorgeous, and the kiddos had a blast. Delaney was a slide monster, climbing the stairs, sliding down, and repeating over and over! She kept saying "Slide! Slide!" She also loves to swing. Here are a couple of pictures from our fun afternoon!

Catching Up.

Since it seems I haven't even bothered to update you faithful followers on our lives lately (although I'm fairly certain basically all of you are my Facebook friends, so you are no doubt privy to the barrage of pictures of a certain darling toddler girl and her antics), I feel I should take one more swipe at this whole blogging business, after all.

What better to start with than a catch up post?

In September we went on a fabulous family vacation to Ft. Walton Beach. Didn't you go there in the Spring? you wonder. Yes, yes we did. How we got the vacation gods to smile down and grant two beach vacations in one year, I may never know. But when it comes to the vacation gods, I don't ask a lot of questions.

October passed rapidly, as Octobers always seem to do. Delaney was in her first costume contest, in which she actually won a toy for wearing a delightful costume that - wait for it - mommy (that would be yours truly) MADE. Yes, made. Check out the cute ladybug on the sidebar if you want the proof. Our newest nephew, Jackson, was born on October 20th, and we have gotten to love on his perfect little newborn self twice so far. With more snuggles to come soon, I hope! We topped off the month with trick-or-treating with friends, which was an absolute ball with our hilarious daughter.

So far in November, Delaney has had her 15 month check up. She is 31.5 inches (she grew 1.5 inches in 3 months!) which is the 80th percentile, and she is 25.9 lbs., 90th percentile. Our girl is growing so big!

There is lots more planned for this month, which I'll try to keep you updated on throughout the month (assuming I don't completely go M.I.A again - I make no promises). Lots of craft projects are planned. Yep, I left and came back crafty, get used to it.

So, in closing - welcome back to our life! So glad you are here to join us for the busy, crazy, fantastic holiday season!